Art in Motion
- PARKER BROWN
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
As chronicled by Parker Brown
The concept of art has been around for as long as history itself. As time dragged on and changed, art and its purpose followed. It’s become a multipurpose tool throughout the many centuries it has existed: documentation, escapism, rebellion, and self-expression. I feel that to truly appreciate this abstract telling of time itself, you need to find someone who has seen and lived through this change. Luckily, Legacy the School of Sport Sciences is the workplace of esteemed art teacher Mr. Vantroi Chapman. In this article, I interviewed him on his view of art and how the love of it remains the same despite its continuously altering landscape.
The streets of New York are where we start our retrospective. Growing up in the city that never sleeps, Chapman believes he was always an artist at heart, “always drawing spaceships of superheroes," however, he credits his mother for nurturing his present-day liking and skill. “My mother always got me things so I could be creative, or put me into art classes, or sent me to museums and galleries; she even paid for me to go to Europe on art trips. [My mother] definitely was a big part of me falling in love with art.” A notable event that kickstarted his love was a Toys-R-Us trip. Initially, he entered the store with excitement for a Nintendo game system; ironically, he left with Legos. Chapman’s temporary disappointment about the trip ultimately subsided once he took a chance at creating.
The fine arts and its identity began “going through a transition period” as he grew older. Due to the up-and-coming genre of hip hop sweeping the music scene, “graffiti” came afterwards. “Art was in the way we dressed, the way we moved, and what we created,” Chapman described. “Trains were filled with tags, people signing their names, and murals of textography and cartoons. I loved seeing the trains go by with all the colors.” Using his already developed eye for art, he noticed that it—both metaphorically and literally—was in motion right before his very eyes. Ordinary things such as “people walking,” “cars passing,” and even the “sounds of the city” sliced through the monotony of life.
However, art is subjective; not everyone found this as inspiring as Chapman did. “Everybody didn't feel the same excitement when the 4 train went rumbling by the elevated track. The adults of the time called it vandalism, ‘...a starting point of urban decay’.” The art form caused buildings and walls to rot away, leading to millions of dollars in new infrastructure. Government officials saw how damaging the replacement of buildings would be to their budget and refused to let this issue spread further. As the government spent an abundance of tax dollars scrubbing the perceived “degeneracy” off walls and trains, Chapman saw himself caught in the middle of an abstract war. However, after the art form spread outside the country, foreign graffiti artists used it as a form of commentary in their own political efforts; the crime became its own form of protest. Many began to see the artworks as they were, a new and hip form of self-expression. As much as this war seems over and done nowadays, there was never an official end to it.
As time and art danced on in tandem, Chapman moved from the Big Apple to the Lone Star State, his thoughts and creativity following his every pencil stroke. Chapman believes that “the term [of art] hasn't changed much for me; what has changed a lot is the mediums used to create art.” Innovation has evolved the creative space, and Chapman finds such wonder in what recent times have brought. A fascination he can recall is a piece with ceramic bowls. “For example, I saw an exhibit of an artist where she built a pool and added ceramic bowls of different sizes to float around the pool. Every now and then, more often than not, the bowls bang into each other and create a sound at a specific frequency, which makes it sound like OHM. What a unique way to create art!”
Chapman is optimistic about where art will head in the near future, predicting that “with the rise of digital art and what we can do with it, I think the future of art will be holograms, augmented reality spaces, and immersive/interactive exhibits." With enough people to appreciate art as much as he does, we can find that this future is nearer than we thought!